Are unions coming to Ohio charter schools?

The state's largest teachers' union has decided it's willing to organize in charter schools. The
decision came after at least a year-long debate.

In its announcement of the policy change, Ohio Education Association President Patricia
Frost-Brooks said she believes charter-school teachers could benefit from collective
bargaining.

"The new policy is consistent with OEA’s principles, including the belief that all employees
have the right to representation and bargaining”, she said in a news release.

A
national
group that advocates for charter schools and publishes charter data says Ohio has 42 charters
with unions. The OEA has yet to organize in one, and the Ohio Federation of Teachers, the state's
other large educator union, doesn't have any units in charters, either.

The Ohio Department of Education doesn't track unions in charters. But it might be that the
unions that exist in charters actually are in converstion charter schools. In other words, they're
holdovers from when the charter school was a traditional, district-run school.